Publisher crash when using TOC bookmark and Go to Anchor when working with a book

[bbrother]

Publisher 2.5.5 (Windows)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Click File → New book... and add chapters to the book.
2. Click Synchronize Chapters to make sure text styles are synced and available in all chapters.
3. Double-click "TOC" chapter in book panel to open the file. Generate TOC in the prepared text frame.
   Use Book for scope, Include as PDF Bookmarks. Save the file using File → Save. Do not close it.
4. It's still an unsaved book. There is no afbook file in the folder where all the chapters are located. You can save the book if you want.
5. Bring up the anchors panel. Use All Chapters in the area dropdown. Select one of the toc bookmarks and click Go to Anchor.
   The result is that app crashes.
6. Alternatively, in step 5 instead toc bookmark choose "MANUALY CREATED ANCHOR" and click Go to Anchor. This time app does not crash. Proper chapter opens up and it is now the active document, proper page and text frame is in document view, caret is blinking in the correct place. 

Attached Dummy afbook and chapter files (used in video below): Dummy Book.zip

Note1: This crash happens for every book i create.

Note2: It appears that the cause are TOC bookmarks in the book, as the crash does not occur with manually created bookmarks.

Note3: Worth noting. The anchors panel does not update when you switch chapters (active document tab). Bookmarks list for when area drop-down in anchor panel is set to All Chapters is often incomplete, and if it's set to Current Chapter sometime list is missing altogether. In those cases, clicking Sync Chapters and switching back and forth the area drop-down helps to fix this and refresh the anchors panel bookmarks list.

Edited November 26, 2024 by bbrother
files packed (zip) for easier downloading

[Hangman]

Hi @bbrother,

See how you get on with the attached updated version of your Dummy Book and let me know if you still experience the same issues along with the crash...

Dummy Book.zip

[bbrother]

5 hours ago, Hangman said:

See how you get on with the attached updated version of your Dummy Book and let me know if you still experience the same issues along with the crash...

I tried your updated version and it seems to work fine without crashing. Also the bookmark lists in the anchor panel are properly refreshed when you navigate to another chapter. What did you do to make it work?

[Hangman]

17 minutes ago, bbrother said:

I tried your updated version and it seems to work fine without crashing. also the bookmark lists in the anchor panel are properly refreshed when you navigate to another chapter. What did you do to make it work?

There's an issue with your ToC text styles leading to the Anchor panel not refreshing and to the crash... If you delete the ToC.afpub file and recreate your ToC for the Dummy Book you should find all works as expected which is basically all I've done with the revised version of your file...

[bbrother]

4 hours ago, Hangman said:

There's an issue with your ToC text styles leading to the Anchor panel not refreshing and to the crash... If you delete the ToC.afpub file and recreate your ToC for the Dummy Book you should find all works as expected which is basically all I've done with the revised version of your file...

Did as you said, yet still can't mak it to work arrrgh....

Im almost sure it is broken on windows cause i did almost everything to make the anchor panel to work and refresh properly.

EDIT:

@Hangman on which app version did you created the updated version Mac or Windows?

[Hangman]

@bbrother,

4 hours ago, bbrother said:

on which app version did you created the updated version Mac or Windows?

Both… before replacing your ToC delete all Anchors from all three Chapters so the Anchors panel is empty…

[bbrother]

@Hangman 

I played around with it some more and came up with this using this chapters: Book 1.zip

Here is the report I get for the app crash I mention in step 5. c9ad4326-1873-4046-b4a5-400f1f579a15.dmp

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a new book using the File→New Book menu, click Add Chapter and add chapters to the book.

2. Drag and drop the chapters to arrange as follow and make sure that chapter 1 is set as the Style Source chapter:

   • Front+Back

   • ToC

   • Chapter 1 (Source Style chapter)

   • Chapter 2

   • Chapter 3

3. Select the ToC chapter entry in the book panel and click Synchronize Chapters.

   • This will copy the text styles needed to generate the toc from the style source to the ToC chapter.

4. Open the ToC chapter by double-clicking its entry in the book panel and once caret placed in the right place in text frame:

   • Click Insert in the toc panel. No toc entries will be generated yet.

   • Change the Scope to Book.

   • Make sure that the Insert as PDF Bookmarks checkbox is checked.

   • Check "Chapter-title" and "Chapter-section" in the text styles list.

   • Set the indent level to 1 for the title and 2 for the section.

   • Check the Include Page Numbers  for both.

   • Click Update in the TOC panel. Now the toc entries are generated.

5. For now, only the ToC chapter is open.

   • Open the Anchors panel and in the Area drop-down , select All chapters.

   • Toc bookmarks and manually created bookmarks, all are listed in anchors panel wchis is correct and expected.

   • Note: At this point, if you select one of the bookmarks created by toc and click Go to Anchor, the application will crash!.

   • Selecting manual bookmark and clicking Go to Anchor works fine and as expected.

6. Go to the book panel and start opening chapters 1 through 3.

   • Before you move on to the next chapter, take a moment to look at the Anchors panel and how the bookmark lists are updated. You will see that the bookmark list when you switch between Current Chapter and All Chapters for the second is incomplete, and for the first it is missing altogether.

7. Go back to the ToC chapter and place caret in the text frame right where the toc text is generated.

   • Now the strange thing is, observe the document tabs for the chapters, after a short while you will see the [Modified] label on all of them.

   • For some unknown reason going back and placing text caret in toc generated text while other chapters where all opened triggered chapter synchronization.

   • Proper anchors are created in chapter files and all problems with anchor panel and bookmarks lists are gone. Anchor panel refresh properly, bookmarks lists are correct and you can use the Go To Anchor without crash with any bookmark.

Note1: Bookmarks still have no hierarchy (parent-child nesting) in Anchors panel even though Indent level was properly set in toc panel.

Note2: When you export the book to pdf using All Chapters to Pages, bookmarks are gruped under chapter filenames instead of chapter names. This is incorrect.

If I understand correctly, when you create a toc in a book, it should work so that the appropriate entries in the text frame are generated, then behind the scenes, the chapters should be synchronized, which will create the appropriate anchors in the chapter files (behind the scenes), and finally the appropriate list of bookmarks should appear in the anchor panel.

For some reason when I create a TOC and when needed it doesn't sync and changes aren't captured and therefore file anchors aren't created. I think that's where the problem lies. I also have no idea why the sync is triggered when I go back and place the text cursor in the TOC text, this should happen after the TOC is created

If there's any chance you could see if you can recreate this, that would be great.

 

[Hangman]

Hi @bbrother,

Apologies for the delay in replying...

I've been testing further also and can confirm your findings... the main issue is that despite the ToC being generated, Anchors are not created in the respective Chapters if the ToC is created when the Chapters are closed which accounts for the crash you're experiencing, i.e., Go to Anchor has no Anchor to go to so Publisher crashes...

Two strange things are happening:

1. The ToC being generated in the first place bearing in mind there are no ToC Anchors created
2. The ToC Anchors appearing in the Anchors panel when they don't exist in practice

In the latest 2.6.0.2900 Beta, the same issue exists when creating a file from scratch though the outcome differs slightly...

1. The ToC is still generated when the respective Chapters aren't open at the time the ToC is created
2. No Anchors appear in the Anchors panel which is more realistic since no Anchors are created and means you can't use Go to Anchor

When the ToC is generated with the Chapters open...

1. Anchors correctly appear in the Anchors panel
2. The Bookmark hierarchy is correctly structured

This should be picked up and logged accordingly by someone in the moderation team...

[bbrother]

22 hours ago, Hangman said:

Two strange things are happening:

1. The ToC being generated in the first place bearing in mind there are no ToC Anchors created
2. The ToC Anchors appearing in the Anchors panel when they don't exist in practice

Exactly.

 

22 hours ago, Hangman said:

In the latest 2.6.0.2900 Beta, the same issue exists when creating a file from scratch though the outcome differs slightly...

1. The ToC is still generated when the respective Chapters aren't open at the time the ToC is created
2. No Anchors appear in the Anchors panel which is more realistic since no Anchors are created and means you can't use Go to Anchor

I can confirm that I see the same thing in Beta 2.6.0.2900. By not displaying anchors because they weren't actually created in chapters, the user isn't hit with a crash when using the Go to Anchor command. That’s something, at least🙂

 

22 hours ago, Hangman said:

When the ToC is generated with the Chapters open...

1. Anchors correctly appear in the Anchors panel
2. The Bookmark hierarchy is correctly structured

@Hangman Unfortunately, I cannot confirm that the Bookmark hierarchy is correctly structured in 2.6.0.2900 Beta.

Here is what I see either using old files or stating a book from scratch:

1. In the chapter that contains the TOC:

   • For All Chapters in the anchor panel, all Bookmarks are flattened.

2. For the relevant chapters:

   • For Current Chapter in the anchor panel. The Bookmarks hierarchy is maintained. Chapter sections are correctly nested under chapter titles.

   • For All Chapters in the anchor panel. Bookmarks hierarchy is maintained, but only for "current chapter" bookmarks entries. Rest of chapters are flattened.

Note: After closing and reopening the book, All Bookmarks for all chapters are flattened, they use the same level. No parent child relationship no matter if you choose Current Chapter or All Chapters in anchors panel.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "ToC Created Without Anchors Being Generated for Closed Chapters" (REF: AF-5162) has been fixed by the developers in the latest beta build (2.6.0.2984). The fix is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Affinity Info Bot to notify us.